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I thought the Dany/Jon scenes were awkward and poorly acted. Kit and Emilia both so wooden had basically zero chemistry.

The Varys/Mel scene was ok.

Tyrion and Jon scenes were good.

Cersei and Jaime scenes were awkward and horrible. Jaime is basically her puppet now and lost any semblance of his own character arc. Cersei, despite Lena's great acting, is just a character who has overstayed her welcome. She should have been killed off at end of last season or start of this. How she is still alive is incomprehensible.

Cersei and Ellaria/Tyene scene was too long, but very good and all 3 actresses did well.

The Bran/Sansa reunion was weird but still enjoyable.

The dialogue was still meh and some of the writing awful.

Edited August 1, 2017 by Gaz0680

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Visually, this started well, and I was almost hopeful. If only the dialogues hadn't been such awful nonversations. Jon made a terrible job convincing Dany to help him, and he did a bad job simply to serve the plot. Yet again. He never even explained what WWs are, who the NK is, what he saw at Hardhome. Just "you will be ruling over a graveyard!". And Dany of course did not want to understand him, and didn't ask him anything. That's the poor writing, right there. King's Landing, however, was even worse. Far worse, actually. The smallfolk love Euron? But ... why? Because he looks and behaves like the villain of a bad B-movie? And what a non-character Jaime has become. He lets Euron insult and Cersei blow him, doesn't really want either to happen, but lacks the energy to protest. What? Last but not least, more boring battles. It seems we need at least one per episode now, and it's no problem at all for Euron to sail around the whole of Westeros twice a day. Tyrion's battle plan is terrible, but nobody questions him because ... well, why exactly? Dany hardly dares to speak without asking his approval.

I did like the reunion between Sansa and Bran some, if only because the music was nice and Sophie Turner is a decent actress. The one thing that still gives the show the occasional good moments are the actors.

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Usually dialog heavy episodes would rank lower for me, not because I'm addicted to battle scenes or anything but because so much of the dialog tends to be idiotic. However it felt like the dialog in this episode was a fair bit stronger than what we've gotten used to so I give it an 8.

Things I liked

Not a big fan of Dany's excessive insistence on being treated like royalty, but her attitude seemed about right for the 1st Dany/Jon scene, plus she softened a touch for the 2nd less formal conversation which also seemed about right. I also like how Jon didn't back down and bend the knee and ended up with a victory even tho' Dany had home field advantage.

Really enjoyed the Jon/Tyrion stuff. The sense of respect and just the general feeling that they like one another was clearly displayed

The Jaime/Olenna exchange was really good.

Was thankful for the lack of gratuitous violence in the Cersei/Sand Snake scene. It would've been easy to let Gregor have his way but the poison solution was far better and more creative. The attempted hug while chained at the end was cringe worthy but by Sand Snake standards it was tolerable.

Jorah's recovery was miraculously quick, but overall the Citadel scene played out well.

Lena Headey's body double is a lovely woman, thumbs up for that.

In general there was quite a bit of humor sprinkled throughout. Tyrion rediscovered his wittiness from early seasons. Davos, Jon, Jorah, Olenna all had smirk worthy moments. A strong episode overall on the comedic front.

Things I didn't like

Euron.. I generally don't like all things Greyjoy but he's the worst. The Capt. Jack Sparrow comparison is too much to overlook

Littlefinger... This character is stagnant, played out and needs to be killed off. Every line is delivered in exactly the same way. It's too the point where Littlefinger scenes act as my official bathroom break.

Sansa/Bran... actually liked Sansa here, her acting seems to be improving quite a bit but Bran.. where to start. I can see no reason for Bran to be so bland, emotionless and distant. Hoping the character gets refined a bit in the future, he's virtually unwatchable right now

Absolutely hate how everybody around Cersei is brought down in order to make Cersei's character appear strong

Edited August 1, 2017 by Super Mario

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6 out of 10. I enjoyed the scenes with Cersei and Ellaria, Melissandre and Varys, Jon and Daenerys, but I had to take points off for the appalling scene between Bran and Sansa, and the ridiculous Samwell curing Jorah storyline. The scene between Olenna and Jamie wasn't terrible but it wasn't satisfying. I really wish she had told Jamie that Littlefinger took part in the murder of Joffrey. She knew he helped Cersei bring down Loras and Margaery, so it would have been a perfect way for her to exact revenge.

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I do not know how to rate this episode. I'll think about it a bit more.

Some things I liked very much, but the things I didn't like, I really totally hated them.

Years awaiting Bran's return, and it was dreadful ... is it that being the 3-eyed crow took away all traces of humanity from him? He showed less feelings than the WW, I hated all that, he looked more a zombie than the zombies beyond the wall. They are ruining his character completely. And as the cherry on top of the cake, they make him say to Sansa practically "Sorry... you look great the night you got raped", Really??
And I can not stomach Jaime stupidity and blindness about Cercei anymore, it's pathetic what they are doing with his character.

It's going to be very interesting to see how Bran reacts when he first sees Arya and/or Jon. His complete lack of emotion when Sansa first hugged him was telling. He has either developed a strong type of emotional autism or he has seen something in the future about Sansa that has killed all emotion in him towards her.

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8 out of 10 for me. There are basically six main characters in the whole show and we had a scene where three of them were together in the same room talking, another two met again for the first time since the first season and the final one is apparently on her way to meet up with those two. After almost 20 long years invested in this story I can finally see it converging to a conclusion.

Thought D&D did a good job with Euron and the Sand Snakes this episode too. Now we've finally ditched the bore that was Meereen, the Dornish and Iron Born are by far the weakest link in the series so it's good to see the back of Dorne (although I do find it laughable that just because the Sand Snakes are killed all of a sudden Dorne is out of the picture. There would still be a line of ascension and a Dornish army). That said considering what cold hearted killers they both were, credit to D&D in actually managing to invoke some feeling of empathy towards them at the end.

I still have major gripes (book and TV) about everyone's reaction to the Whitewalkers. I can understand the sceptical nature of people when they first hear but the natural reaction would be to send someone up there to check it out anyway. Not ignore or brood over it.

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I still have major gripes (book and TV) about everyone's reaction to the Whitewalkers. I can understand the sceptical nature of people when they first hear but the natural reaction would be to send someone up there to check it out anyway. Not ignore or brood over it.

This bothers me too, but more in the sense that this is a world in which a woman walks out of a raging fire unscathed, beasts that were believed mythical or extinct return and many other magical things have been witnessed, but they are completely dismissive of what Jon says he has seen.

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Entitled? She earned most of those titles by her actions. You can't call her entitled

She has. Maybe entitled is not the best word to use. The thing is she says not to hold her responsible for her ancestors crimes but expects Jon to uphold the oaths of his. Why? Because she is the mother of dragons, breaker of chains, the last dragon etc. She gives Jon her list of tragedies & expects him to believe them & be moved by them but doesn't want to believe the dead are coming after them. She wants him to take her at her word but has 2 men in front of her telling her something for which they have no motive to lie about & doesn't believe them.

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Jon and Dany meeting is something we have been excited for as book readers and as TV show watchers, but I can't help but feel they failed on the delivery of it.

There was very little tension between the two characters when they met. I'm not sure if it was bad acting on Harrington and Clarke's parts, but they dialogue exchanged between them was stiff and awkward, maybe even poorly written. I mean, you summon a man to come all the way from the North to bend the knee, he refuses and tells you about the threat of the Night King and the army of the dead and you don't ask him anything about it or look remotely interested. I know she likely doesn't believe him and the audience know all that he does so it would just be explaining things the viewers know, but the lack of interest she showed made no sense.

I am so disappointed in what Tyrion has become. He pussy-foots around Dany so much that you can hardly recognise him as the same maverick from season 1-4. The part were he and Jon were left brooding was enjoyable because that felt more like the Tyrion of old.

I did like the final Jon and Dany scene. The exchange between them was more realistic and I hope it's a sign of things to come.

I don't know, it just felt like a lot of filler at times, which I didn't think this series would be. The first two episodes covered more ground and I felt things were going faster than last season but E03 felt like another one of those slow paced episodes from last season.

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Disclaimer: I have fully embraced the attitude of don't think about it. Don't worry about details and logistics and inconsistencies. I am not 100% successful, but it has helped me enjoy the strengths of the show like production value and good acting. I will nitpick some here and a ton in the rant thread.

Citadel: I like all three actors and they quickly tied up a story line. It seems that grey scale was a macguffin and a waste of one of the show's best performers, but I did enjoy Sam having something to do.

Dragonstone: We finally get one of the most anticipated meetings in the show (and books). Sadly, the scene is limited by the weakness of the two actors. Normally these two are surrounded by strong performers and can lean on them. When they need to carry something this big, it shows. It also shows that they both really gave their best effort here, so I give them some credit. Harrington is best when he is trying to look uncomfortable, so this played to his strength. Clarke is weak when she is being powerful, so she really struggled with it. Other than that, I enjoyed Davos playing the fan surrogate and mocking Dany's absurd string of titles. The Davos/Missendei conversation was an odd waste of time. I guess they needed something for her to do. When both rulers had their consultation with Tyrion, it worked well. This is playing to the show's strengths of great production and a strong actor carrying a pretty face. It was nice to see the writers let a scene play out with some nod to sense rather than spectacle.

Lannister army: Casterly Rock was well done in it's simplicity. No need to pour HUGE bucks into that sequence. (Keep reminding yourself to ignore time and the mystical navy of Urine) Highgarden was equally sensible. (Again, don't fret how this happened and worrying about an army went from attacking and winning easily to defending a keep and losing easily). They gave a glorious amount of time to two of the show's best performers. I wish this was Season 2 pacing and we had 4 episodes of Jaime and Olenna. I'll take this happily, though.

King's Landing: I am enjoying Cersei finally as the batshit crazy ruler she always should have been. Heady is great, she should be a Marvel villain or something. Her Romulan hair is still distracting. She would be better as beautiful crazy. Urine continues to remind me of a cartoon character. No idea why the people would all be cheering him, I expect most of the people in Westeros hate the Greyjoys and have no idea who he was dragging through the streets. I really dislike the way he is on the show. I don't understand his end game at all. Is he going to blow through all of his ships and then hope Cersei marries him???

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I gave this a 9/10. You can see they are off book now and working on an outline so it lacks the quality of dialogue and influence of GRRM that the prior six seasons did. It's really only a loose adaptation of ADOS in my eyes with a few key touch points (Jon trying to rally the realm, Dany vs Cersei battle, probably Bran getting back to Winterfell, Cersei/Euron alliance but the direction is heading to GRRMs ending).

Going back to the episode I felt it was well acted even by Kit, Emelia and Sophie who I've been slightly critical of before, I thought they were all exceptional this week. I really enjoyed the Bran and Sansa reunion it was so bitter sweet and I can imagine similar in the books (but not exactly the same). I loved how the Lannisters out foxed team Dany and dealt a major blow, even though we all know Cersei is doomed it's good to see this is a proper fight and not just a slaughter - as I'm sure it will be similar in the books rather than just a walk over.

Lots of good set-up for remaining episodes too, what is in Maester Luwins scrolls, what will Sam find in Old Town, where is Jorah going now, Dany is about to bring down fire and blood and it's likely to have negative consequences, Jon still needs to convince the two "mad queens" that the real war is in the north etc.

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I agree that the dialogue seems to have gone down a level since D&D ran out of GRRM-words, but happy to see things progressing.

And I look forward to the outrage over Cersei's rape of Jamie...

Rape...you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. If he didn't want her to blow him, he would have just walked away. What's she going to do, bring the topic up in the small council meeting and force him into fellatio with a royal edict?

He was ambivalent about sex at first, and then she convinced him otherwise through the art of seduction.

If you've noticed, pretty much every time the show has them having sex, it starts out with one of them being reluctant about it and then warming up to it later. It's probably the latent guilt over incest that needs to be overcome each time.

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It's going to be very interesting to see how Bran reacts when he first sees Arya and/or Jon. His complete lack of emotion when Sansa first hugged him was telling. He has either developed a strong type of emotional autism or he has seen something in the future about Sansa that has killed all emotion in him towards her.

He probably wasn't as emotional about it as her because he's been able to watch her progress this whole time and knows she's not dead. Sansa on the other hand has thought he was dead for years. Plus he's a Stark male. They are known for their stoic demeanor.

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Positive: gags in mouths of Sand Snakes.
Tyrion acting as a go-between between Jon and Dany. He reminded me of the rock trolls from Frozen ("He's a bit of a fixer-upper..").
Dragons! (Jon: "Fetch me my brown pants, Ser Davos.")
Ser Jorah is now baby smooth and ready to re-enter the friendzone on Dragonstone.
Olenna Tyrell shrewdly waiting until she's about to experience a merciful death to let Jaime know she strangle-poisoned King Joffrey so hard.
Euron attempting to get sexual advice from Jaime ("Remind me to wash my golden hand when I get home.")
Sansa reunites with another Stark.
Bran revealing he can see everybody all the time, even when they're masturbating. Hey you'd be jaded too if you'd seen that much.

Negative: Dany being such a hypocrite. You expect everyone to believe you walked through two burning infernos and brought dragons back to life, which you can mind control - kinda, and you can't believe in White Walkers when the most serious man in Westeros tells you they're real.
Bran holding back his little secret. Dude, you should have opened with "Hey, Jon Snow's our cousin and the rightful king of the Seven Kingdoms. R+L=J, dude!" and not with "I watched you get raped by Ramsay on your wedding night through a tree."
Where the fuck is Arya?
The Lords of Westeros forgetting to garrison and defend strategic castles properly. Hmm, this kinda goes back a few episodes and seasons. Let me count: Winterfell got sacked by a dude without a sack. Stannis forgot all about Dragonstone and presumably Storm's End when he went north. All of Westeros forgot to man the castles along the Wall. Impregnable Casterly Rock got taken and still looked like a defeat (ooohhh, right, we forgot to defend our ships...). Highgarden got taken, really? Olenna, you might have lost about ten soldiers total since season 1, how could you not defend against a severely depleted Lannister Army? Who the fuck's guarding the Vale? Or the Twins? It's like medieval whack-a-mole here with these castles.